Review | Xyron Mini Sticker Maker

I’m a big fan of Xyron products – my husband bought me the Xyron 510 (now known as the 5″ Creative Station) about eight years ago as a surprise gift for Christmas and I’ve pretty much worn it out. I use it to make stickers out of everything– from die cuts to vintage postage stamps to mailing labels.

One caveat to the 5″ machine is that if you are just making a few smaller stickers, you waste a whole lot of adhesive in the process.

That’s where the smaller Xyron sticker makers come in. The one I used for this project is the blue Mini Sticker Maker, which retails for $4.99.

The package includes just one thing: an “X” shaped adhesive dispenser that you feed your paper shapes into.

As far as ease of use, the Mini Sticker Maker is completely simple and intuitive. Just choose an item you’d like to make into a sticker, feed it face-side-up into the top of the Xyron machine, and pull on the paper adhesive strip on the side of the machine, and the sticker is made for you. The machine “pulls” the soon-to-be sticker inside of it and sandwiches it in between an adhesive strip and a clear cellophane top layers. Simply tear off the completed sticker, peel off the cellophane, and voila!, instant sticker.

First things first – let’s talk about the size. While it’s lovely to have a smaller Xyron to make smaller stickers with, the one issue with the “Mini Sticker Maker” is that it’s almost a bit *too* small. Most punch-outs, die-cut shapes, and letters are about 1″ wide/long at the smallest, and the adhesive tape in the Mini Sticker maker is only 1″ wide.

However, sequins, enamels dots, and smaller letters/die cuts are all very trendy at the moment, and this Mini Sticker Maker is perfect for those applications. Pocket scrapbooking is not going away anytime soon, and new, smaller embellishments specifically designed for that style of memory keeping are being released constantly. The Xyron Mini Sticker Maker allows you to turn a handful of sequins, dots, or tiny die cuts into ready-to-apply stickers. (If you have slightly larger items, the Xyron 250 or the new 3″ Disposable Sticker Maker by Xyron might be more your style.)

I decided to go ahead and make some tiny embellishments for a pocket page I am working on for my scrapbook. I grabbed a punch that I love, but that doesn’t get much use because of it’s small size – the Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch- and see how the Xyron did with that. I also grabbed a pad of 6×6 patterned paper (MME Indie Chic in Citron), which is the perfect size for punching things out of.

After punching out a bunch of tiny butterflies, I fed them into the top of the Xyron.

And then I gently pulled on the adhesive tape at the bottom of the machine to reveal the sticker.

I tore off the paper with the attached cutting strip, and peeled away the cellophane coating, and the sticker was ready to go.

Within literally seconds, I created a bunch of perfect tiny embellishments for my Project Life-sized projects, and they were all ready to be attached to the page without the muss and fuss of liquid adhesives. Plus, the “dry adhesive” nature of the Xyron means that once the sticker is applied to the page it doesn’t shift, which makes it perfect for being slid instantly into a snug page protector.

All in all, I love this little gadget and I know it will get a ton of use. It’s easy to use, and it allows me to make use of some of the supplies I love to purchase but rarely get to use because of the “fuss factor”. The Xyron Mini Sticker Maker makes it easy to create custom stickers from any flat item up to 1″ wide (and it’s also good for those Thickers that have lost their stickiness – simply feed the letter into the machine and you have a fresh, sticky letter that will not fall off your page!)

Pros:– very easy to use
– perfect for adhering smaller embellishments
– enables you to create custom embellishments for smaller size projects with supplies you already have on hand (scraps of paper, punches, etc.)

Cons:– adhesive is non-refillable
– the machine does not come apart (some Xyron uses prefer to use the adhesive rolls *without* the machine because you can save on adhesive that way, but this machine comes pre-loaded and there’s no way to get the adhesive tape out of it.)
– very, very small.

Chel Micheline is a mixed-‐‑media artist and writer living in Southwest Florida. After receiving her Master's Degree in Media Studies in 1999, Chel spent several years as a graphic artist before deciding to focus on both writing and mixed media art. In addition to writing regular columns for several online and print publications, Chel spends significant time in her art studio working on jewelry design and various mixed media projects.
In 1995, Chel began to design and maintain the website Gingerblue. Originally intended to be a multimedia art experiment, Gingerblue soon evolved into one of the very first personal journals on the
internet, and also hosted several collaborative projects for other writers and artists. Over fifteen years later, Chel is still writing regularly at Gingerblue, pondering everything from paintbrushes to philosophy to life with her husband, Tom, and her daughter, Gracie.

I have used this for years now and I think mine IS refillable; I like to save on adhesive so when I saw your butterfly in the top I thought…”I’d put some smaller ones next to it”….that way I get the most bang for the buck!

Gosh, I hope Xyron has not discontinued the larger machine (sticker-sized) because I would not buy one that comes pre-filled and disposable. We have enough stuff going in our landfills without Xyron disposable machines added to them. Also, the smaller sticker-sized Xyron is perfect for lots of smaller items and I use it constantly. I have noticed it is becoming harder to find the refill cartridges for it in the hobby stores, lately.

It’s my understanding that the majority of the elements in the disposable machines are recyclable and that there is as little trash from them as there would be from using a refill in a refillable machine.